Amelia Edwards

Bust of Amelia Edwards, Petrie Museum, University College, London

Titian's Birthplace, drawn by Amelia Edwards in her book Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys. A depiction of a location in Caprile.[3]

Born in London to an Irish mother and a father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker, Edwards was educated at home by her mother and showed early promise as a writer. She published her first poem at the age of seven and her first story at the age of twelve. Thereafter came a variety of poetry, stories, and articles in several periodicals, including Chambers's Journal, Household Words, and All the Year Round. She also wrote for the Saturday Review and the Morning Post.[4][5]

In addition, Edwards became an artist and would illustrate some of her own writings. She would also paint scenes from other books she had read.[6] She was talented enough at the age of 12 to catch the eye of George Cruikshank, who went as far to offer to teach her, but this talent was not supported by Edwards's parents, who saw it as a lesser profession and the artist way of life as scandalous.[7] This negative decision haunted Edwards through her early life. She would wonder frequently whether art would not have been her true calling.[8]

Thirdly, Edwards took up composing and performing music for some years, until she suffered a bout of typhus in 1849 that was followed by a frequently sore throat. This made it hard for her to sing, causing her to lose interest in music and even regret the time she had spent on opera.[6] Other interests she pursued included pistol shooting, riding and mathematics.[7]

Early in the 1850s, Edwards began to focus more exclusively on being a writer.[9] Her first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife (1855). Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel involving bigamy that established her reputation. She spent much time and effort on the settings and backgrounds of her books, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the research and writing of each. This paid off when her last novel, Lord Brackenbury (1880), went to 15 editions.

Edwards wrote several ghost stories, including the frequently anthologised "The Phantom Coach" (1864).[4][5] The background and characters in many of her writings are influenced by personal experiences. For example, Barbara's History (1864) uses Suffolk as the background, which she had visited for a few enjoyable summer holidays as a child.[8]

The Monte Pelmo, as drawn by Edwards during her expedition to the Dolomites

Edwards first heard about the Dolomites in 1853, through sketches brought back to England from Italy. On 27 June 1872, she embarked on a trip through the mountains with her friend Lucy Renshawe.[8][6][10] That day they left Monte Generoso for Venice, one of the three known ways to enter the Dolomites, but not before parting from Renshawe's maid and courtier, who disapproved of such a journey.[10] Instead the two women hired mountain guides from the region.[8] On 1 July 1872, after a three-day stay in Venice, Edwards and Renshawe left for Longarone, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Pieve di Cadore, Auronzo di Cadore, Val Buona, Caprile, Agordo, Primiero, Predazzo, Fassa Valley, Passo Fedaia, Sasso Bianco, Forno di Zoldo, Zoppè di Cadore and Caprile, and ended their journey in Bolzano.[10] At the time of Edwards's visit, the Dolomites were described as terra incognita, and even educated persons had never heard of them.[8] This journey was described in her book A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites (1873), later entitled Untrodden Peaks and Infrequent Valleys (1873).[6] During the expedition, Edwards also sought works of Titian, finding a Madonna and Child in Serravalle (Vittorio Veneto) and two other paintings at a village church in Cadore.[9] After her descent from the mountains, Edwards described civilized life as a "dead-level World of Commonplace".[8]

In the summer of 1873, dissatisfied by the end of their journey, Edwards and Renshawe took to a walking tour of France.[8] However, this was interrupted by torrential rains, a factor that influenced them in looking towards Egypt.[6]

Upper part of a statuette of an Egyptian woman and her husband. 18th Dynasty. From Egypt. From the Amelia Edwards Collection. Now housed in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.

Philae (illustration from A Thousand Miles up the Nile)

Edwards, again accompanied by Lucy Renshawe, toured Egypt in the winter of 1873–1874, experiencing a fascination with the land and its cultures, ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the two women visited Philae and ultimately reached Abu Simbel, where they remained for six weeks.[11] Another party member was the English painter Andrew McCallum, who discovered a sanctuary that came to bear his name for some time afterwards.[12] Their boat joined a flotilla with another female English traveller, Marianne Brocklehurst, also travelling with a female companion. Brocklehurst and Edwards remained friends and Brocklehurst later supported her Egypt Exploration Fund.

Edwards wrote a description of her Nile voyage entitled A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877).[13][14] This self-illustrated travelogue was an immediate success.

Edwards' travels in Egypt made her aware of increasing threats to ancient monuments from tourism and modern development. She set out to hinder these through public awareness and scientific endeavour, becoming an advocate for research and preservation of them. In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund with Reginald Stuart Poole, Curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards became joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death.

Great Temple at Abu Simbel (from A Thousand Miles up the Nile)

To advance the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned other writing in favour of Egyptology. She contributed to the 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica,[15] to the American supplement of that, and to the Standard Dictionary. In addition, Edwards took on an strenuous lecture tour in the United States in 1889–1890. The lectures later appeared as Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers.[16]

Upper part, figure of an official of Amenhotep III, from a double statue. From Bubastis (Tell-Basta), Egypt. From the Amelia Edwards Collection. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.

After catching influenza, Edwards died on 15 April 1892 at Weston-super-Mare, having lived at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, since 1864.[17][18] She was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Henbury, Bristol, where her grave is marked by an obelisk with a stone ankh at the foot. Alongside are the graves of her life partner of 30 years, Ellen Drew Braysher (9 April 1804 – 9 January 1892), with whom she had lived in Westbury-on-Trym, and of Ellen's daughter, Sarah Harriet Braysher (1832–1864). In September 2016, Historic England designated the grave Grade II listed,[19] as a landmark in English LGBT history.[20]

Edwards bequeathed her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, with a sum of £2,500 to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology.[21] Edwards also supported Somerville College Library, having left many books, papers and watercolours to Somerville College, Oxford, along with a small collection of Greek and Roman pots.[22]

• In 2012, Edwards was portrayed as a non-singing character in Stephen Medcalf's production of Aida at London's Royal Albert Hall.[23] The opera opens with a Victorian "dig" among Egyptian tombs, and the action unfolds as Edwards imagines the plot taking place based on her exploration of the site.[24] The libretto was based on a scenario by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, a contemporary of Edwards.[25]
• The Egyptologist and novelist Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz) named her character Amelia Peabody after Amelia Edwards.[26]
• In 2014, a new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, staged a music-theatre piece, I Was Here I Was I, based on Amelia Edwards's A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, at the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts' Sackler Wing. It was written and directed by Nigel Maister to music by Kate Soper.[27]
• A one-woman show based on Edwards's life, Hers Was the Earth, by Kim Hicks, was performed at the Petrie Museum during the 2011 International Women's Day observances.[28]

• Mary Brodrick

• Manley, Deborah (2015). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry.[6]
• Adams, Amanda (2010). Ladies of the Field. Greystone Books.
• Moon, Brenda E. (2006). More usefully employed: Amelia B. Edwards, writer, traveller and campaigner for ancient Egypt. London: Egypt Exploration Society.
• Rees, Joan (1995). Women on the Nile: Writings of Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale, and Amelia Edwards. Rubicon Press.
• Rees, Joan (1998). Amelia Edwards: traveller, novelist & Egyptologist. London: Rubicon Press.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amelia Edwards.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Edwards, Amelia Ann Blandford.

• Online books, and library resources in your library and in other libraries about Amelia Edwards
• Online books, and library resources in your library and in other libraries by Amelia Edwards
• Works by Amelia Edwards at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Amelia Edwards at Internet Archive
• Works by Amelia Edwards at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• "Amelia Edwards biography". UPenn Digital Library.
• "A Celebration of Women Writers". UPenn Digital Library.